Haleth looks pained; she likes the fact of his Doom as little as he likes the fact of her mortality. "But if Canien speaks truly, she escapes that fate, when the time for it closes around you," she says finally. "As do I and all the other Haladin."

They have been sitting several feet apart, but now Haleth stands and moves closer, kneels on her haunches next to him. Slowly, giving him plenty of time to rebuff her if he chooses, she reaches for his hand, the one he used to cover his eyes. "I do not know if you ever realized that when I drove you away, there was one argument I did not make."

The one that above all others would have ended the matter: she has never said she does not love him. It would have been by far the easiest way, and it would have been a lie.